Chris Rattue: Footing it without Rooney a tall order for England

And the winner is ... Brazil.

Yes, yes. An obvious pick. And 10 days out from the World Cup, it's very hard to go past soccer's royalty as the team to triumph in the 2006 tournament.

But let's start with England, the team of choice for many of us who have been brought up on the glories of their endless divisions of football. Much of our affection for the game is embedded in clubs from English places we have never visited.

I will cheer as loudly as the most loyal Pom, although not for nearly so many decades, if Peter Crouch should strike or more likely scramble a glorious winner at the Olympiastadion in Berlin on July 10.

Which is the problem for England really, because as hard as you try, it is hard to imagine the ironically named Crouch - so tall that he could go eyebrow to eyeball with Chris Jack - scoring enough goals to even get England into the final.

England - once strong second-favourites - have become Crouch-ing lion, hidden chances.

Against the best sides, they may have to make the most of goal-scoring opportunities you could count on the metatarsals of one foot.

Without Wayne Rooney, and it is increasingly likely that this will be the case, the number of chances created will surely take a severe dip.

The best that is said of Crouch, and quite often in the build-up, is that he has an unusually deft touch for a man so tall. But this is not a handicap system, and it's whether those touches are deft enough full stop that will count.

Crouch has an unfortunate habit of suffering nightmare games, where his only chance of getting the ball into the net would be to chuck it in. And even then he might miss.

England's main goalscoring hope, Michael Owen, is under a fitness cloud himself. It doesn't look overly promising in this department.

Which leaves Steven Gerrard, the Liverpool wonder, as the man most likely to emerge as England's hero, a courageous dynamo who can score from long range, and adapt to just about any position.

If they are shouting this England team's name in 40 years' time, then you'd pick that they will be shouting Gerrard's name the loudest.

So what of other European contenders? One of the great attractions of international football is provided by its Latin-style temperament, a tendency to succeed when failure is predicted, or to destruct when all is going well.

Lead-up form is not necessarily a good guide. The beauty of football World Cups is that team personalities emerge during the tournament, that it is not an inevitable and boring march of the strong over the weak into the final stages a la rugby's World Cup.

Let's hope that this magic is not trumped in Germany by cynical fouls, deliberate diving, death threats from crazed football fanatics and the rest.

Italy go to Germany with their game in turmoil over a club betting scandal that must be affecting many of their players. Even coach Marcello Lippi was interviewed, as a witness, in recent days.

But you still wouldn't write them off and they may shape as the strongest European challenger. The Italians have such an innate ability to defend and instinct for making the most of scoring chances that they are an eternal threat. Goal creator Francesco Totti could be their key.

France, with a flakier make-up than the Italians, entered the last World Cup as champions and quickly departed as chumps. They have been cast as the clowns of the build-up, thanks to world football's chief funnyman Fabien Barthez. So incensed was another French goalkeeper Gregory Coupet at Barthez's favoured status with manager Raymond Domenech, that he briefly stormed out of a bonding camp at a mountain retreat.

Coupet cracked and toddled off when Barthez un-clipped from teammates during a mountain climb complaining of a sore leg.

Teammates applauded Coupet when he returned. It's hard to fancy this French team, despite the wonderful Thierry Henry.

The Dutch have a terrific winger in Arjen Robben, but Ruud van Nistelrooy has hit a bump in his career, and do they have enough elsewhere?

Of all the leading sides, the Germans are most capable of winning with a poor team and/or when they are playing poorly. This is what they may need to do on home soil.

Yet their coach, Jurgen Klinsmann, has been operating from a base in California and after early optimism over a fresh approach, he has copped a barrage of abuse, especially after a recent and heavy defeat to Italy.

The Germans might struggle to find the tough core which is the essence of what can make them great.

Outside the home continent, which often provides the winner, you wander towards Argentina but inevitably get back to Brazil.

The free-flowing Ronaldinho is unchallenged as the greatest player in the world. This is his tournament for the taking. And while Brazil may not always defend with the artistry of the Italians or the brutality of the Germans at their best, they can hold the ball for so long that it doesn't always matter.

An England-Brazil final is the match-up from heaven. With Rooney gone, it's much less likely.

A lot of the optimism cracked at the same time as Rooney's foot bone. But oh, to be proved wrong ...


Will the following survive the distance?

Wayne Rooney

Unlikely. May not even start. But have no fear - every step or non-step will be covered in relentless detail.

The wall chart

I've never successfully completed one of those things. All the early optimism, the enthusiastic printing of scores, starts to unravel about game four. By Game 64, it's a crumpled mess in the magazine rack and I'm left with no idea if Poland beat Ecuador in the group play. Must try better.

My wife

She's been shielded from the build-up - although it was impossible to keep her away from the Rooney injury story - partly in the hope that it will give her the strength to make it through the tournament. Hopefully, the fears for Rooney have not worn her out. She will face an early test of character when the wall chart goes up on the lounge wall (just joking, honestly).

Australia

Won't get anywhere near to winning it, of course, but there's real hope they will survive their group alongside Brazil, at the expense of respected Croatia and unfancied Japan. Would be a great achievement, and terrific boost for the game Downunder.